"After preparing - or better say growing - the orders for 6 to 7 months, the supermarkets are now reducing and cancelling their orders a week or even a day in advance. Especially now in today’s world when every order is a custom order - top it off with Easter - it has been almost impossible for growers to manage, including us", says Alexander van Hoekelen of Van Hoekelen Greenhouses in Kline Township (PA). They are one of the largest bulb growers on the East coast and supply their products to supermarkets and big box companies all over the US and have their own garden center.
So to enable the plants to still bring people some joy during this COVID-19 shut down, instead of being dumped, Van Hoekelen Greenhouses arranged a Drive Thru Easter Flower Box Sale last weekend and this weekend, which is being overwhelmingly appreciated by the local community.
Last minute cancellation supermarkets
Everyone is faced with this worldwide pandemic, for the most part it seems that the supermarkets and chain stores don’t have the warehouse space and or enough labor for floral. "Some are very helpful in finding a solution, but others are just not able to get us in. It truly falls harder on us, the grower, for we have already invested so much time, labor and expense to prepare not to mention some still need to pay the growers in Holland for the bulbs. Many growers do not have a destination for their products, so many will be forced to just dump them. No matter how it ends up, we growers will be faced with an extremely unprecedented loss this year, For the stores, they truly will have a loss in the floral sales, however we hope they will fair out by offsetting with a large spike in necessities (paper products, cleaning supplies, hand sanitizer etc.). Our business takes so much time to prepare and when this comes to an end most of the flowers will be expired, we can't just fill up and start shipping again as we need to decide now on the next crop that will be ready in the next 6-7 months.
Click here for the enlargement of the image.
Not dumping but selling
Besides shipping to supermarkets, Van Hoekelen also owns a garden center, but due to the COVID-19 situation, they had to close their doors. And when receiving the reductions, cancellations and hearing from the supermarkets about space labor and sales being down in floral that people do not want to buy flowers, Alex's heart broke. Therefore - as well as they do not want to dump their products and still bring joy to the community, they organized a Drive Thru. "We were sure that people were still willing to buy flowers, so we there made a special Easter Flower box. It is a colorful pick me up during this dark and depressing time of COVID-19 " On top of that, a percentage of each flower box sold will be donated to the local fire department. "We want to support them as well as their funds have been cancelled."
The deal
Each flower box has the same content; 2 Easter lilies, 2 tulips, 2 hyacinths and 2 daffodils. The value of a box is 50 USD and is being sold at 20 USD of which 5 USD goes to the local fire department.
How does it work?
At two locations, Van Hoekelen sells their pre-made flower boxes. But how does the Drive Thru work? "By car, the buyer needs to access the property, they tell us how many boxes they want, we will open the trunk/door, we will put in the box and close the door. In this way, the boxes are minimally touched, people do not have to stand in line in front of the store - so all sanitation and social distance requirements are met."
Heartwarming reactions
So far, Alex is very pleased. Last weekend, they organized the first Drive Thru Easter Flower Box Sale and sold 3,000 boxes. "What we sell right now will never balance out the cancelled orders, but it is great to see that people are so much willing to buy the flowers. Churches are closed and this gives them the opportunity to still brighten up their homes or go to the cemetery to decorate the graves of their loved ones. And we are so happy to see that they are all so thankful for the opportunity we are offering them. On our Facebook page, for example we received so many "Thank You's", kind and heartwarming words. And people are even coming back for more, to get a box for others in the family or for the nursing homes, for example." Yesterday, they started the final Drive Thru Easter Flower Box Sale which will run till Sunday. Yesterday already, they sold 500 boxes and Alex has high expectations for the weekend.
Mother's Day
Mother's day will be Van Hoekelen's next important holiday. Time will tell how the situation will be then, but Alex hopes to have the garden center open again. "I hope we are allowed to open the doors of our garden center again and enable our community to start preparing for spring. But times are challenging, we have to make decisions now for a crop that will be ready in 6-7 months and that is very difficult as no one knows when this will end."
For more information
Van Hoekelen Greenhouses, Inc. (VHG)
Alexander van Hoekelen
Email: alex@vhgreenhouses.com
www.vhgreenhouses.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/vhgreenhouses